[ARSCLIST] Industrial Design Historians Seek Help in Selecting Technology

[Barbara Egan <barbaraegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Archivists,

On behalf of the Design History 'special interest section' of the Industrial Designers Society of America (http://www.idsa.org/whatsnew/sections/dh/index.html), I am soliciting your recommendations of easy to use, good quality equipment and software for the recording, cataloging and archiving of oral histories. 

We need guidance in selecting the following: 

1. We have just conducted our first podcasts to be available online in the near future.  These were done over the phone through a contracted conference-call company. The sound quality is good for the interviewee but the interviewer's in-phone mike is causeing some 'slurring' sounds.  Could you recommend an external mike for a phone? Is there something more low-tech which might be used to reduce this problem (I've heard that covering the mike holes with something like cotton or foam works)?  Is there a particular model of podcast quality phone that you can recommend? 

2.  For non-podcast oral histories done by phone what equipment would you recommend? Phone make and model? Mike to attach to phone? 

3.  For oral histories done in person what equipment would you recommend?
 
4.  What is the best way to archive these until they find a permanent home and which would be acceptable to a library?  On what media: cd, dvd, dv or magnetic tape?  Is it okay to house them in a standard climate controlled self-storage unit?
 
5. What cataloging system do you recommend?  What easy-to-use software might facilitate transfer to a library archive in the foreseeable future? 

Any help you might lend will be greatly appreciated.  We have an impending deadline to use our budget so time is of the essence. 

Thank you in advance for your responses,
Barbara Egan